Palatial Michigan Homes Recall Ostentatious Past

November 24, 1985|By Jean Simmons, Dallas Morning News.

ROCHESTER, MICH. — Perhaps the playhouse will give you an inkling as to what the big house is like. Knole Cottage, a six-room dream-come-true for a 12-year-old named Frances M. Dodge, was the first all-electric home in the Detroit metropolitan area when completed in 1926.

In it the young mistress was ``to learn the fine art of homemaking`` on a waffle iron and other appliances that, like their surroundings, were scaled down about a third from normal size. Anyone taller than 5 feet 4 inches must bend over while passing through the doorways.

The cottage was planned to resemble an English country house, Knole Park, and it contains the same handsome oak paneling and woodwork used in her real- life home, magnificent Meadow Brook Hall, just a short stroll through the woods. Many of the playhouse furnishings and appointments are of museum quality.

If Knole Cottage is impressive, Meadow Brook Hall is overwhelming. It has 100 rooms; 24 fireplaces of individual design; 29 chimneys, each different;

and 26 bedrooms, each with a built-in safe. It stands as a monument to a lost era in which flamboyance went along with family fortunes.

There are gargoyles, hidden stairways, Tiffany glass, and elaborately carved beams and paneling. No attention to detail was spared in the design and creation of this 80,000-square-foot Tudor-style mansion.

Telephones are even hidden away so as not to distract from the mood. Were it not for the 23 luxurious bathrooms, you might well imagine you are touring a genuine 16th-Century English castle--but a very homey, personalized one.

Meadow Brook Hall was built as a family home, its architectural details and contents very individualized by its owners, the widow of automotive tycoon John Dodge and her second husband, Alfred Wilson.

The former Matilda Rausch was Dodge`s secretary at the Dodge Brothers factory before their marriage in 1907. His death in 1920 left his family

(which included his widow and two offspring, Frances and brother Danny, as well as three children by Dodge`s first wife) as heirs to one of America`s largest fortunes.

Five years later Matilda married Wilson, a Wisconsin lumber broker and son of a Presbyterian minister, and she resumed plans for the mansion she had long envisioned.

With their Detroit architect, William E. Kapp, the Wilsons toured many English manor houses for inspiration. The construction of Meadow Brook Hall on a secluded farm near Rochester, Mich., took from 1926 to 1929 and cost $4 million. It was built almost entirely of native materials, using American artists and craftsmen.

Dodge had already built a clubhouse with swimming pool and golf course on the property before his death and his widow continued to expand the acreage. By 1931 the Wilsons had two children of their own, Barbara and Richard.

The baronial estate was referred to by the whole family simply as ``The Farm,`` although by 1957 it consisted of 1,400 acres, dozens of farm buildings, a contemporary home and, of course, Meadow Brook Hall.

The Wilsons gave their estate to Michigan State University in 1957 for establishment of another campus, which later became an independent institution under its present name, Oakland University.

The Wilsons occupied the home until their respective deaths in 1962 and 1967, after which the university assumed responsibility for it. The huge building was converted into a residential conference and cultural center for continuing education, which it remains today on a self-sustaining basis.

Except for July and August, when it is open daily, Meadow Brook Hall can be toured on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. A buffet is available in the Christopher Wren Dining Room.

In the summer the house is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.); tape recorders are used to augment the guidebook, and indoor or outdoor food service is available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Group tours can be arranged throughout the year by appointment. Groups or individuals can take advantage, too, of a two-night package called Gatsby Getaway, which includes receptions, dining, programs and sleeping

accommodations, also by reservation only. The Gatsby package is offered from September through June, excluding December. Participants are able to get the feel of living amid such surroundings and to enjoy such special treats as peeks inside the books in the library.

Most bedrooms have two beds, allowing up to 38 people to be accommodated overnight for conferences.

A special time to see Meadow Brook Hall might well be during Bagpiper`s Dream Dec. 4-15. The annual Christmas walk-through carries a Scottish theme this year with floral designers and display artists dressing the house in fairy-tale splendor. Generally the hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., although from Dec. 9 to 13 they are extended until 8 p.m. Knole Cottage becomes Santa`s home for the event.